Biomass Enzymatic Saccharification Research Articles

High-level hemicellulosic arabinose predominately affects lignocellulose crystallinity for genetically enhancing both plant lodging resistance and biomass enzymatic digestibility in rice mutants.

Rice is a major food crop with enormous biomass residue for biofuels. As plant cell wall recalcitrance basically decides a costly biomass process, genetic modification of plant cell walls has been regarded as a promising solution. However, due to structural complexity and functional diversity of plant cell walls, it becomes essential to identify the key factors of cell wall modifications that could not much alter plant growth, but cause an enhancement in biomass enzymatic digestibility. To address this issue, we performed systems biology analyses of a total of 36 distinct cell wall mutants of rice. As a result, cellulose crystallinity (CrI) was examined to be the key factor that negatively determines either the biomass enzymatic saccharification upon various chemical pretreatments or the plant lodging resistance, an integrated agronomic trait in plant growth and grain production. Notably, hemicellulosic arabinose (Ara) was detected to be the major factor that negatively affects cellulose CrI probably through its interlinking with β-1,4-glucans. In addition, lignin and G monomer also exhibited the positive impact on biomass digestion and lodging resistance. Further characterization of two elite mutants, Osfc17 and Osfc30, showing normal plant growth and high biomass enzymatic digestion in situ and in vitro, revealed the multiple GH9B candidate genes for reducing cellulose CrI and XAT genes for increasing hemicellulosic Ara level. Hence, the results have suggested the potential cell wall modifications for enhancing both biomass enzymatic digestibility and plant lodging resistance by synchronically overexpressing GH9B and XAT genes in rice.

Biomass enzymatic saccharification is determined by the non-KOH-extractable wall polymer features that predominately affect cellulose crystallinity in corn.

Corn is a major food crop with enormous biomass residues for biofuel production. Due to cell wall recalcitrance, it becomes essential to identify the key factors of lignocellulose on biomass saccharification. In this study, we examined total 40 corn accessions that displayed a diverse cell wall composition. Correlation analysis showed that cellulose and lignin levels negatively affected biomass digestibility after NaOH pretreatments at p<0.05 & 0.01, but hemicelluloses did not show any significant impact on hexoses yields. Comparative analysis of five standard pairs of corn samples indicated that cellulose and lignin should not be the major factors on biomass saccharification after pretreatments with NaOH and H2SO4 at three concentrations. Notably, despite that the non-KOH-extractable residues covered 12%–23% hemicelluloses and lignin of total biomass, their wall polymer features exhibited the predominant effects on biomass enzymatic hydrolysis including Ara substitution degree of xylan (reverse Xyl/Ara) and S/G ratio of lignin. Furthermore, the non-KOH-extractable polymer features could significantly affect lignocellulose crystallinity at p<0.05, leading to a high biomass digestibility. Hence, this study could suggest an optimal approach for genetic modification of plant cell walls in bioenergy corn.

Research Progress in the Groove Structures of Plant Cell Walls and Biomass Utilizations

Plant cell walls represent an enormous biomass resource for biofuels and other chemical products. Principally, plant cell walls play a central role in plant morphorgenesis, and greatly affect plant mechanic strength, biomass digestibility, fiber quality and plant resistance. In this article, we briefly introduce the recent research advance in plant cell wall structures and functions by elucidating the key factors of plant cell walls that predominately determine biomass enzymatic saccharification upon various physical and chemical pretreatments in five typical plant species (rice, wheat, <italic>Miscanthus</italic>, sweet sorghum and maize). Notably, a groove structure of plant cell walls was observed in all of the five plant species using atomic force microscopy, and three types of nine distinct genes were identified that may be involved in the formation and modification of the groove structure. Therefore, a novel cell wall model was proposed concerning mechanism of biomass digestion and conversion, which provides insights into new biotechnologies for improving cotton fiber quality and enhancing crop resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Bioethanol Production from Rice Straw in the MAFF Research Project, Japan

AbstractRice straw is among the most abundant herbaceous biomass, and regarded as the central feedstock for bioethanol production in Japan. We found that significant amounts of soft carbohydrates (SCs), defined as carbohydrates readily recoverable by mere extraction from the biomass or brief enzymatic saccharification, exist in rice straw in the form of free glucose, free fructose, sucrose, starch, and β-1,3-1,4-glucan. Based on the finding, we proposed a simple method for bioethanol production from rice straw samples with SCs, by a heat treatment for sterilization and starch gelatinization, followed by simultaneous saccharification/fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This method would offer an efficient process for bioethanol production without the aid of harsh thermo/chemical pretreatment step.